Voiceless
by KaitoPhantom1412
Summary: Just a series of related drabbles about how Link lost his voice and learned to deal with it along with the loss of his mother. (Takes place a few years before Skyward Sword) Rated T due to some depressing themes and just in case. There will be updates. Please read and review! Thanks!
1. Chapter 1

**The Sickness**

Link curled into his mother, tears falling down his face. His fever burned throughout the 5-year-old's entire body, making everything he touched feel cold to him, including the woman next to him. "Momma," he whimpered, wishing the pain would stop. "It hurts! It–"

He was cut off as his whole body racked in another coughing fit, blood splattering the sheets on the bed. The woman did nothing to calm the poor child as he coughed and cried. "Momma?" Link eventually managed out in a rough voice, his throat sore. It hurt to even talk now. "Momma! Why won't you answer me?" He was seized up by more coughing, unable to stop until he fell asleep from exhaustion.

The next day, the headmaster of the Knight's Academy, Gaepora, stopped by their house with the town doctor, though only the doctor went in. The house smelled of disease. In the bedroom of the small hut were two people, one long dead and a small child with labored breathing. "How are they?" Gaepora asked when the doctor came back out a while later with the child in his arms.

"I'm afraid it's too late for the mother," the doctor said. "She must have passed away last night."

The headmaster looked at Link, whose every breath sounded painful. "And the boy? Will he make it?"

"It'll be hard to tell. It's not contagious anymore but if he does survive from this illness, it'll have some sort of lasting effect on him. He may never recover completely."

Gaepora nodded, taking Link into his arms, noticing how much smaller and fragile the normally talkative and hyper child was. "Just do what you can please. We'll take care of him from now on."


	2. Chapter 2

**Mute**

Link woke up, his throat feeling as sore as ever. It's been 4 days since he was taken away from his mother and placed on bedrest in the Knight's Academy of all places. The child didn't understand what was going on or why everybody gave him strange but sad looks. The doctor came everyday to make sure he took his medicine and he had slowly gotten better, though he was still coughing a lot, sometimes hacking up blood with it.

Today though, he felt a lot better than before. His fever was gone and he felt like he finally had some of his energy back. Despite knowing that he should stay in bed until the adults said so, the 5 year old got out and headed to the door. The boy had to stand on his tiptoes to open it. Looking around the hallway, he saw nobody around. Smiling to himself, Link ran out the room, not even bothering to close the door behind him. He climbed up the nearby stairs, eager to explore the academy he dreamed of joining when he was old enough.

* * *

Around 10 minutes later, Gaepora was standing outside of Link's empty room with wide eyes. He should've known that the energetic child wouldn't stay in that room for long! Where could he have gone!?

Just then, there was a loud crash upstairs. Gaepora ran to the source immediately. He found the little troublemaker in the upstairs classroom, a broken pot beside him and holding a green rupee happily. "Link!" The headmaster said sternly, giving the child a look of disapproval.

Link just smiled, seemingly not caring that he had just gotten in trouble. He opened his mouth to speak but raspy squeaks came out instead of words.

Link's hands went to his throat as he coughed at the pain. Why did it hurt so much!? It felt fine just now!? He tired again with the same result, the pain a little bit worse this time. At this point, Link was really scared about what was going on. He tried calling for his mother but that didn't work either.

The headmaster immediately forgot about the broken pot as he rushed to the child's side, picking the small boy up. Something definitely wasn't right. "It's okay Link. Just breathe." He said calmingly as he began carrying Link out of the room and back downstairs. He needed to talk to the doctor as soon as possible to know what was wrong with Link.

The doctor sighed as he looked away from the child, having just examined him. "It's not good. It seemed the illness ruined his vocal chords."

Gaepora frowned. "How long until they heal."

The doctor shook his head. "He's not going to heal," he said gravely, looking back at the child who was trying to follow along with what being said. "He's mute."


	3. Chapter 3

**Tantrums**

The days after learning that Link would spend the rest of his life mute were hard for everyone, particularly the child in question.

For the first couple days, Link would try and fail at speaking, always ending in strange squeaks and a coughing fit. Everyone felt sorry for the poor child as it looked painful to so much as laugh.

Eventually, the kid gave up and spent the next day just sulking, as if doing that would make the adults help him fix it. However, no help was offered as everyone knew that this was irreversible.

After sulking was when the real trouble began. It was afternoon when the first tantrum hit. Link was sulking outside, Gaepora hoping that being outside would lift Link's moods. However, all he did was sit pitifully under a tree, wishing that they'd just let him go home to his mother. She'd hug him and tell him it was alright as she took care of him and made him better, just like she always did when he was sick. Some of the knights in training passed by the tree, noticing the child. "Isn't that the mute kid who's mom died?" One asked a little too loudly.

"Shh! He'll hear you!" His friend said.

"So what?" The first said with a mean sneer. "It's not like he can tell anyone or run to his mommy!"

Link's eyes widened. These older boys were liars! Picking up a fallen fruit, Link threw it as hard as he could at them, hitting the first one square in the back. The boy was about to advance on Link but the younger one already had more fruit in hand, throwing them aimlessly, even as the two knights hurried away. But Link kept throwing, his vision blurred by tears. His mother wasn't dead! He saw her just a few days ago! She couldn't be dead!

After that, Link would act up randomly, breaking things and pounding on the walls and floors. When others told him to calm down and try explaining what was wrong, Link only got worse. He couldn't tell them anything! He couldn't ask them about his mother or tell them he wanted something! He couldn't even say his own name! The frustration of all of this broke out and soon, the child was even hitting the knights and the headmaster.

* * *

Gaepora was at his wits end. It was hard to get any work done around the academy with Link always being so loud and causing chaos wherever he went. If things kept going like this, Link could end up hurting himself or others.

One day, Gaepora sat down with his daughter. She was the same age as Link so maybe she could figure out what was wrong? "Zelda, what would you do if you couldn't speak and were in a different place?"

The little girl thought for a few moments. "I would cry a lot and be really scared. I'd try calling for you and Mommy."

The man frowned. Was that what was going on. Was Link trying to call out to the mother he had unknowingly lost? He knew what he had to do though. He had to tell Link the truth.


	4. Chapter 4

**Lonely**

The next morning, Gaepora knocked lightly on Link's door before entering. "Link? There's something I need to talk to you about." The child in question glared at the headmaster. "It's about your mother."

Link instantly tensed up in his bed. He gave the older man his undivided attention. It had been so long since he had seen or heard anything about her other than the whispers that just couldn't be true. However, his heart filled with dread.

"You remember how both you and your mother got really sick?" Link nodded. How could he forget? It was only a couple weeks ago. "Well your mother…I'm afraid she…"

Gaepora couldn't seem to find the words, wishing he could spare Link from the truth. But it had to be done. Link had to know the truth if he was ever going to move on.

"I'm sorry Link but…your mother…she's not coming back." Link shook his head in denial. Gaepora felt his heart break as the small boy just shook his head, tears already rolling down his face.

He was lying! They all were! His mother was still alive! She had to be! She wouldn't just leave him all alone like this! Unable to vocally tell the headmaster to stop, Link grabbed his pillow and threw it as hard as he could at the man.

The pillow didn't really hit that hard but it still hurt Gaepora deep. "Link, I'm sorry but your mother is gone. She's passed on from this world."

The boy threw himself at the headmaster, hitting the man's chest with his small hands. His whole body shook in anger. Link continued shaking his head rapidly. He didn't want to hear this! It couldn't be true! It just couldn't…right?

His punches grew softer until he stopped completely, breaking down into a total sobbing. How could she just leave him like that!? She was supposed to always be there for him when he got hurt or sick or was sad! She was supposed to help watch over him and be his best friend! Why'd she have to go? He still needed her!

Gaepora let the boy cry his silent tears, putting his arms around him to comfort the poor child. "I'm sorry Link. I'm so sorry."

The words felt empty to Link, everything suddenly seeming pointless. He felt so cold and empty and lonely. He continued to cry until he fell back asleep and Gaepora tucked the boy back in.

 ** _I just wanna thank everyone for reading this series of related drabbles! I know the chapters aren't very long but that's just because they are drabbles and each drabble is meant to focus on a different part of Link's growth in this challenge. This is not the last chapter as I still have some other stuff planned such as how he will get past the communication barrier and his interactions with certain characters. If there is anything else you would like to see in this drabble series, please let me know your ideas in the comments! It would mean a lot and help me to get chapters up quicker! Thank you!_**


	5. Chapter 5

**Friends**

It was later that day when Zelda came by the academy to drop off some of her mother's homemade soup for her father. What she did not expect to see was a young boy around her age glaring at her from the doorway of one of the dorm rooms. He seemed pretty upset with red puffy eyes from crying and a seemingly permanent scowl on his face.

Now that she thought about it, didn't her dad say something about a young boy living at the academy now. This had to be him! There had been something else her dad said about him but she couldn't remember right now.

Despite how upset the boy looked, Zelda walked righr on over, the dinner basket still in hand. "Hello," she greeted with a smile. The boy stared at her quietly even as he ducked behind the door a bit. Zelda was undeterred though and pressed on with the introductions. "My name is Zelda. What's yours?"

Link was silent, unable to answer. After a few seconds of still nothing, Zelda sighed slightly. She probably thought of him as a lost cause. However, instead of just turning away, the girl smiled brightly at him. "Guess you don't talk, do you?"

The young boy shook his head. Zelda continued talking. "Do you know where my daddy is?" Another shake of the head. "Can you help me find him?" Link hesitated. He didn't really want to do much of anything right now. But Zelda seemed pretty nice...for a girl anyway. Reluctantly, he nodded his head.

Soon, the two children were walking around the academy. Zelda talked to Link about a whole bunch of things. Link quietly listened. He tried commenting a couple of times, only managing some squeaking sounds. However, despite his inability to communicate, he didn't feel so lonely being around Zelda and listening to her talk abou the things she liked.

Finally, the pair found Gaepora. The man was shocked to see the children together, let alone Link outside of his room. He had expected Link to hole himself up in his room after learning about his mother's fate.

"Daddy!" Zelda cried out happily as she ran to give him a hug. "I made a new friend! I don't know his name though!"

Link stayed back, looking down to avoid the headmaster's eyes. If he had known Zelda was his daughter, he would've stayed in his room.

Gaepora smiled softly as he kneeled to hug his little girl. "Link, can you come here please?" He then said to the boy.

Link gave a start. He really didn't want to talk right now...not that he could say anything anyway. He walked forward to join the two and Gaepora made the children face each other. This had to be a blessing from the Goddess for the small boy as he wouldn't have to move forward alone.

"Zelda, this boy is Link. He can't speak but he's the one staying at the academy now since his mother has passed away. As his friend, I'm going to need you to do something for me, okay?"

Zelda nodded. "What do you want me to do Daddy?"

"Since this morning, I've been researching for ways to help Link and I found something that will help him speak." Link's eyes widened and he began squeaking and coughing a bit in excitement. He could speak again after all!?

"I'm going to need you to help him in this, okay? Will you do that?"


End file.
